Minis recast on ebay - copyright infringement

[FainFlynn]

Hey board,

Check this link:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Heroquest-barba ... 1515614135?

I find it unlikely this guy has the rights to reproduce these figures, particularly at such high costs.

Anyone else encounter this and report it?

[torilen]

It seems that people get away with a lot of copyright infringement on ebay
when it comes to HQ. Not sure how they get away with it...and some people
here at the inn don't seem to mind it so much. I have seen instances where
someone is printing and selling boards, cards, etc. - items that were made
by other people (sometimes here at the inn, sometimes in other places...maybe
in the UK or elsewhere)...and the thought expressed is that if they are using
their own time and money to print it off, they should be able to sell it
at a profit, even if it doesn't belong to them.

I've stopped worrying about it, myself. If people want to report it, they
can when they find it.

[FainFlynn]

I wouldnt even mind it so much if they were being reasonable in their pricing. But this a-hole is just gouging.

[tasoe]

I think I've seen this canadian fellow selling his metal recasts in the past.
Never felt the need to report it. Clearly he hasn't got the rights but it's not hurting me personally, whoever owns the rights to those figures should care.
Also, $100 doesn't seem too expensive for a full set of frozen horror figs (without the mercs of course).

However, feel free to report it if you want, I'm not judging anyone who would. I just don't understand why would anyone care.

In the past, there was a person selling pdf of the barbarian pack questbook on ebay (while they are freely downloadable on the web).
I think it was Sjeng who mentioned it here, and people rushed to report it. I didn't agree on that as well, but I can understang why it would bother some people.
The recasts though seem totally harmless to me.

[knightkrawler]

However, feel free to report it if you want, I'm not judging anyone who would. I just don't understand why would anyone care.

No company has been actively trying to make money with selling those sculpts themselves for years and decades, so any profit this guy makes doesn't cut in on anybody else's legit money.
Just don't be so stupid as to buy the minis if you feel they are too expensive.

Copyright infringement issues should be made and cared for by legit copyright owners if they actually give a fraggle and not by people on high horses that are the equivalent of an old man in undershirt reporting wrongful parking out of boredom.

[torilen]

One of my big fears is that, should MB or Games Workshop ever decide to care and crack down
on those who are infringing (if they're still able to), then they would go overboard and shut down
fan sites - much like TSR tried to do in the past and as Wizards of the Coast did with a lot of their
PDF's that were being sold legally on various gaming sites.

The other fear is that there is so much talent that goes into the fan materials here at the inn, and
at the other few big HQ fan sites...people need to know they won't get away with infringement
if they try to sell others' property. I don't know about anyone else, but I typically make sure that
stuff I post here is labeled clearly that it is MY property. If I wanted to sell it, I would. It is hard
to go through every single posting on ebay to make sure someone is not trying to sell your stuff.
If people know that, when they get caught they'll get reported, then there will be less of it
going on to worry about.

[torilen]

KK - that is a WHOLE other issue. Most of the people label things as "recast",
but a lot of the booklets being sold are sold as actual booklets. If someone
has the resources, they can make a very nice looking booklet from a PDF.
Those are not real booklets, however, and someone who is buying to collect
will be getting ripped off.

How do we know that someone with a bit of talent won't start selling recast
figures as actual figures?

[knightkrawler]

Because it doesn't matter if the quality is on par and nobody gives a toss about profit cuts.
Seriously, in this case we're talking baout here, where do you have your qualms?
Because the guy supposedly is not a member here?
You know billdask and Patroclus are doing basically the same thing, but without ebay - and they should.
But if it's about that guy's pricing... I call it close to justified, ask any recaster producing small quantities, but if it's still too steep, keep your money like I do.
He clearly states that the set he's selling consists solely of recasts, by the way.

[billdask]

I use ebay quite often and Patroclus used it in the past. Don't forget goldenboy82 here
As for the price, the reproduction cost is high due to material's cost and of course the time that you need to dedicate to make the recasts.
You also pay the quality, ok... excluding goldenboy's recasts

[cynthialee]

It is an orphan game. The company that holds rights to the game is not making the game. So this is fair game in my opinion. Now if they were to reboot the game then I wouldn't be so cavalier about someone else's intellectual property.
As for the gauging....that is a prick move, deluxe.